The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors that provide electrical damping by dissipating electrical energy from conductors of the connectors.
Some electrical connector systems utilize electrical connectors, such as board-mounted connectors, cable-mounted connectors, or the like, to interconnect two circuit boards, such as a motherboard and daughter card. The conductors of a first electrical connector are terminated to one circuit board and extend through a housing of the first electrical connector towards a mating end to engage mating conductors of a second connector that is terminated to the other circuit board.
Some known electrical connectors have electrical problems, particularly when transmitting at high data rates. For example, some electrical connectors utilize differential pair signal conductors to transfer high speed signals. Ground conductors improve signal integrity by providing electrical shielding between the signal conductors. However, electrical performance of known electrical connectors is inhibited by resonance spikes at certain frequencies when transmitting high speed electrical signals, even with the presence of ground conductors disposed between the signal conductors. For example, electrical energy (referred to herein as electrical resonance) may propagate along the current path defined by the ground conductors and/or the signal conductors, reflecting back and forth along the lengths of the conductors to cause a standing wave that degrades the signal transmission performance of the electrical connector.
A need remains for a high speed electrical connector having reliable performance.